Amalgamator



P" 23, 1940- v. E. CLARKE 2,1 7,923

- AMALGAMATOR Filed Jun e 21, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. 7P2" P CZarZ e,

April 23, 1940. v. E. CLARKE AMALGAMATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 21, 1957 a w INVENTOR. BY ?Pr2z,el (YarZ'e,

ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 23, 1940 2,197,923 n AMALGAMATOR I l Vernie E. Glarke, Los Angeles, Calif. I I

Application June 21, 1937, Serial No. 149,306

' 1- Claim. '(01. 209-41 UNITED, STATES PATENT oFFicE My invention relates to improvements in amalgamators, the primary object being toprovide means which will most efi'ectively recover gold or other metal from hard rock,'gravel and 5 sand through afiinity for mercury. It is recognized by experienced mill men that when low grade free milling ore and preciousmetal bearing sand and gravel is conducted by water over amalgamating apron plates, the plates scour and 1 the amalgam is lost very quickly. The amalgamation is also inefficient when any form of impact is created against the stock or when any intermediary impact means is used between the stock and plate. Further it is well recognized that the surface tension of the mercury usually causes the amalgam to foul and the surface tension of the water causes the fine particles of metal it is desired to recover to flower thus allowing the fine gold or other metal to escape with the water. 2 The primary object of my invention, therefore is to produce an amalgamator in which the affin'ity of mercury for fine flour and coarse gold or other amalgamable metal is utilized to a maximum extent and by which a maximum surface area of 9.5 mercury is compelled to contact all of the gold or other metal in or floating upon the conducting liquid without fouling the amalgam or flowering the fine particles and by which the objectionable scouring effect referred to above is entirely 3O obviated. By the use of my improvement there is no loss of time for plate dressing .and the process is automatic when set in operation and free from hand labor except to draw OE and supply mercury from time to time. Further my 5 improved amalgamator is adapted to consume a minimum amount of water, the stock (meaning the material carried by the water); being drained after amalgamation and removed and the recovered water recirculated through the appara 0 tus. Further my improvementprovides means for forcing all of the stock into sliding contact with the mercury and at the same time automatically depressing the mercury and breaking its surface tension, thus effecting immediate 45 amalgamation of the finest particles of amalgamable metals.

Various attempts have been made to amalgamate free unattached gold, zinc, slimes, sulphides and other amalgamable particles of metal 50 found in hard rock, placer workings and black sand by force feeding the stock in contact with mercury but in most instances the duration of contact has been too short, the agitation of the mercury has been too violent, the surface area of contact too small, the surface tension of the mercury too great or the impact actiontoo violent to be highly effective. With my improvement I have overcome these objections by forming the liquid conducted stock intoa thin sheet and by 60 passing the same under constant even pressure across or through a succession of transverse pools or beads of mercury, whereby the contact surface of the mercury is automatically kept clean and bright and the floating metallic particles in the liquid caused to successively contact the mercury 3'- until all of the particles of amalgamable metal have become amalgamated with the mercury.

With these and other objects in view my in-'- ventidn comprises the features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter described 6 broken away to show the internal construction more clearly; Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section, and Fig. 3 is a cross section through the body structure taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

In the drawings, A indicates an inclined base having a pair of parallel vertical sides It! and ll,

said structure being suitably supported by any conventional frame work such for illustration. as B. In this structure is provided a longitudinal series of horizontal transverse amalgamating troughs C, each having a substantially cylindrical and quadrantal wall l2 joined at its ends to the parallel vertical sides l0 and H of the body by welding, if made of metal, or other suitable means. The troughs are thus supported at regular intervals in an inclined plane downwardly, the upper trough resting at-an elevation above the next succeeding trough downwardly throughout the entire series so that liquid will gravitate downwardly from trough to trough. The adjacent rims of each pair of troughs are connected by a short downwardly inclined apron D which forms a spill way over which a stream of liquid carrying the material to be treated, which for convenience I term the stock is adapted to flow from one trough to the next 40 I below. In this manner the stock to be amal gamated is adapted to flow downwardly through the series of troughs in the body structure. The extreme upper and lower troughs are substantially similar to the remainder of the troughs except no amalgamating means is provided and they, are used respectively as a feeder E and a receiver F for the stock. In each amalgamating trough is a rotatable cylinder G which is mounted upon a coaxially disposed shaft l5, said shaft being journaled at its ends in the sides i0 and H small well or groove I! which extends longitudinally throughout the entire length of the trough and transversely across the flow channel Hi. This well is adapted to hold a bead of mercury across the flow channel so that as the rolls revolve forwardly in the direction of the arrows shown in Fig. 2 the thin sheet of stock to be amalgamated and carried by the liquid is caused to slide over the surface of the mercury in each well to. successively present the amalgamable metal therein to the most effective amalgamating action of the mercury and thereby continuously breaking the surface tension of the mercury and preventing fouling the mercury. The. ends of the rolls G revolubly abut against the sides 10 and H of the body A so that substantially no stock escapes from sliding over the amalgamating medium.

The rolls G are revolved slowly at even surface speed by any suitable means, the structure shown having a longitudinal shaft 20 journaled on one of the sides of the body, and pairs of intermeshing bevel gears 2i and 22 interposed between said longitudinal shaft and the shafts l5 carry ing the amalgamating rolls G. Shaft 20 is driven by a downwardly extending shaft 24 and intermeshing bevel gears 25 and 26, the latter being readily separable so that cover J (hereinafter described) can be elevated and shaft 24 being in turn driven by the gas engine or other motor I and transmission gearing 21.

The gang of amalgamating rolls are protected above the body A by cover J, which closes tightly over the body including the receiving trough F and is hinged at 28 at its upper end to body A so as to swing upwardly into open position. A

' yoke 29 secured to the frame work B is for supporting any suitable hoisting means (no-t shown) for raising the lower end of the cover so that the rolls and troughs can be inspected, mercury replaced in the wells, repairs made or the receiver F cleaned. The wells are provided with valved outlets 30 leading into a longitudinal outlet duct 3! for the removal of the amalgam.

' The stock to be treated consisting of ground hard rock ore, placer gravel and sand, black sand, slimes, or sulfides containing free unattached gold or other metal is placed in a suitable agitator such as K, from which it is elevated by a pump L through the main supply duct and conducted through the distributing duct 36 into feeder trough E. From this feeder trough the stock is carried by the liquid and caused to cascade over the uppermost spillway D into the upper trough and fiow through the channel IS. The roll in the upper trough spreads and urges the stock evenly in sliding contact with the mercury in its well, the movement of the stream and the rubbing contact of the stock against the mercury being augmented by the revolution of the roll. From the upper amalgamating trough the stream carrying the stock cascades over the next lower apron and into the succeeding trough and the amalgamating process is repeated. This operation repeats until the stream leaves the lowermost amalgamating trough whereupon the stock from which the amalgamable metal has been removed enters the receiving trough F and finally flows over the spillway 38 into a settling tank 39. After settling the tailings are carried to the dump and the liquid recovered from the tailings-returned to the agitator and again used, for continuing the process. During the process as stated the amalgamable metal is repeatedly forced in intimate sliding contact with a com paratively large body and over a comparatively large surface area of mercury in such manner that substantially all of the free amalgamable metal including the fine float particles is amalgamated with the mercury. The surface tensionof the mercury is also continuously broken and the mercury kept bright and clean and free from fouling. Also the revolution of each roll causes the liquid conducting the stock to cascade successively from trough to trough, thereby thoroughly agitating the stock and presenting it in most effective condition to the amalgamating action of the mercury in the wells and preventing clogging so that black sand and other material can be treated without flouring. The sliding contact between the amalgamable stock and surface of the mercury is conducive of most effective amalgamation due to reducing or preventing surface tension and fouling of the mercury. As a result a highly efficient recovery of substantially all of the amalgamable metal in the stock is accomplished by myimproved apparatus.

In accordance with the patent statutes I have described the principles of operation of my invention together with the construction thereof which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof but I desire to have it understood that the structure shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means and applied to uses other than those above set forth within the scope of the following claim.

Having described my. invention What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

An amalgamator, comprising, a body frame disposed in a fixed inclined plane, a protecting cover hinged at its upper end to and adapted to cooperate with the body frame. and form an enclosure, a series of semi-cylindrical horizontal troughs arranged side by side successively across said body frame and having the lower side of one trough connected to the upper side edge of the next succeeding trough below in said series by a spillway arranged at a tangent to each trough below and on a perpendicular line to the radius of the quadrant of the trough above. a cylindrical roller arranged longitudinally in each of said troughs to form a thin flow channel extending longitudinally of said troughs and downwardly through said series of troughs, means for revolving said rollers in a forward direction whereby liquid containing stool: to be amalgamated is propelled downwardly through said series of troughs along said channel and is caused to cascade from trough to trough and thereby agitate the stock as it enters each trough, a narrow well extending below the lower extremity of each trough the full width of said flow channel between the cooperating members of each pair of troughs and rollers adapted to hold a bead of mercury, below said channel and across each trough over the surface of which the stock traversing said channel is floated under hydrostatic pressure, and valved ducts for conducting the mercury from said wells,'said rollers being journaled below said cover in said body frame whereby when the cover is swung upwardly upon its hinge support all of said rollers are exposed simultaneously to enable inspection and cleaning.

VERNIE E. CLARKE. 

